Analysis of the thunderstorm plan, introduction of the thunderstorm plan

In June 1941, before the start of the Soviet-German war, the Soviet military forces deployed on the Soviet-German border far exceeded those of Germany in size and quality: the number of troops, the Soviet army was twice that of the German army; Comparison of military equipment: tanks, the USSR was 4 times larger than Germany, half of which were comparable in mass to the most advanced German tanks; artillery, 60,000 in the Soviet Union and 10,000 in Germany; Fighters, 10,000 of the Soviet Union, of which at least nearly 4,000 fighters were comparable in performance to the most advanced fighter of the Luftwaffe at that time, the ME 109, while Germany used only 1,830 fighters to attack the Soviet Union, of which only 500 advanced fighters M 109, and most of the other fighters were outdated, including 300 requisitioned from Finland and 400 old fighters from Romania.

Stalin's ambitions were no less than Hitler's, and he mobilized heavy troops on the Soviet-German border not because he foresaw that Hitler might advance eastward at any time, otherwise he would never have been at a loss in the event of an undeclared war in Germany, but because he had other plans to take advantage of the fire. He felt that Hitler's war with France and Britain on the Western Front would provide an opportunity for the Soviet Union. Everyone knows that fighting on two fronts is a taboo for soldiers, not to mention that France and Britain are by no means weak countries in Western Europe, but powerful countries with good strength.

According to Stalin's original estimate, Hitler could not have won a quick victory on the Western Front, and it was more likely that he would be stuck in the quagmire of the Western Front and be unable to extricate himself. Therefore, on the one hand, Stalin signed a friendship treaty with Hitler to conspire to partition Poland, and on the other hand, he actively prepared for war and amassed heavy troops on the Soviet-German border, so that once Hitler fell into the quagmire of the Western Front, the Soviet Union could take the opportunity to send troops on a large scale, turn Hitler's Eastern Europe into Stalin's Eastern Europe, and then look for opportunities to occupy Western Europe.

Based on this judgment and purpose, even after Hitler quickly took France and began to attack Britain, Stalin still did not believe that Hitler would advance eastward before defeating Britain. To this end, in March 1941, the Supreme Command of the Soviet Union formulated the "Strategic Plan for the Expansion of the Western Front", and clearly decided to "start the offensive on June 12" to Germany, but due to insufficient preparations, it had to be postponed; On May 15, the plan for the start of the offensive in July was adopted - the main forces of the Red Army launched an offensive in the direction of Katowice in Krakow, cutting off Germany from the Balkans, and then rushed to the Baltic coast to encircle the German troops stationed in Poland. In the direction of the main attack, the Soviet Union was ready to commit absolutely superior forces and use 152 divisions against 100 German divisions.

Even Stalin decided on June 4 to form a Polish division of the Red Army for the parade after the capture of Warsaw.

However, Stalin never imagined that Hitler was a madman who played his cards out of common sense, and when the German-British war was making no progress, he suddenly launched a war of aggression against the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. Therefore, at the beginning of the Soviet-German war, Stalin, who was not psychologically prepared, seemed at a loss, and lived in seclusion for a week before he spoke in the Soviet Union ** and carried out national war mobilization. For this reason, the then deputy chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Army lamented:

If only the time for the attack on Hitler had been June 12, 1941! That would be a full ten days before Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union. ——

World War II Secret Archives